214 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1366 



return, we feel that those who receive the 

 collections should pay the expenses of cata- 

 loguing', assembling, packing and shipping. 

 The smaller collections will require several 

 days to prepare and ship, the larger ones one 

 or two weeks. The cost of clerical and other 

 assistance will range from $65 to $200, de- 

 pending on the size of the collection. 



W. K. MOOREHEAD, 



Curator 



Andovek, Mass. 



PUBLICATIONS OF THE VIENNA MUSEUM 



Dr. Victor Pietschmann, as successor of 

 the late Dr. Steindachner, writes of the sad 

 plight of the museum of Vienna in having no 

 means for publication, and no means of dis- 

 posing of two works already printed. One of 

 these is a Monograph of the Genus Tenthredo, 

 the other a Monograph of the Siphonese Ver- 

 ticillatefe from the Carboniferous to the Cre- 

 taceous with plates, by Dr. J. Pia. This great 

 work on fossil plants is said to be of especial 

 value, and Dr. Pietschmann has great hopes 

 that some one in America may take fifty copies 

 at $5.00 each. The price is not great and the 

 crisis is pressing. I suggest that any one 

 willing to help this great center of scientific 

 work to rise to its feet, may (as I have done) 

 send a check for the equivalent in Kroner of 

 five dollars to Dr. Pietschmann, Mechelgasse 2, 

 Vienna 111.3. 



David Starr Jordan 



QUOTATIONS 



THE PROTECTION OF BRITISH OPTICAL 

 INDUSTRIES 



There are two main objects which the Bill 

 to be introduced should secure and reconcile. 

 On the one hand, if the industry is to be saved, 

 the manufacturers must be protected from 

 foreign competition aggravated by the state of 

 the exchange; and, on the other, the users of 

 scientific instruments must not be prejudiced 

 or hampered, either by being unable to obtain 

 the best instruments or by having to pay an 

 extravagant price for them. These apparently 

 conflicting interests are not merely recon- 



cilable; they are interdependent. If the 

 British optical industry should dwindle and 

 die, the scientific users of instruments will 

 be at the mercy of foreign manufacturers, 

 they will have to pay a heavy price for such 

 dependence, and they will be handicapped as 

 compared with scientific workers in foreign 

 countries possessing a flourishing scientiflc in- 

 strument industry. Similarly, if the scientific 

 users can not obtain the best instruments for 

 their work, or if they have to pay an ex- 

 orbitant price for them, their work will be 

 hampered, their demand for instruments will 

 decrease, and the manufacturers will ulti- 

 mately suffer. 



The industries, through the British Optical 

 Instrument Manufacturers' Association, ask 

 shortly for the following measures of pro- 

 tection : 



1. 'No optical glass or scientific instru- 

 ments to be imported into this counti-y for a 

 period of, say, seven years, except under 

 license. 



2. Such licenses only to be granted in re- 

 spect of goods which are not being made in 

 Great Britain in the required quantities or of 

 the required quality. 



3. An expert licensing committee to be 

 set up. 



4. The optical instrument manufacturers 

 are prepared, in order to guarantee reasonable 

 prices, to submit to a control of profits. 



The manufacturers are satisfied and confi- 

 dent that, under such conditions for a limited 

 period, they would be able to establish the 

 optical glass and optical instrument industries 

 on a sound and stable basis, and also be able 

 at the end of the period to meet any foreign 

 competition in the open market. On the 

 other hand, unless they secure this limited 

 protection, it is more than prabable— indeed, 

 it is almost certain — that the manufacture of 

 optical glass in this country will cease, and 

 that, in consequence, some of the largest 

 British manufacturers of optical instruments 

 will greatly curtail their production. The 

 proposed measures seem to protect adequately 

 the interests of the scientific users. Moreover, 



